Testimony of Children (Alice Gray Book 2)

58

I inched my upper back off the slab of cold stone in slow, stiff movements. The pain from my cracked rib would have made me vomit, if there was anything left inside to come out. Resting on my elbows, I met the flashing silver eyes of my impossibly young looking father. I wasn't out of the woods yet.

The circle was down, and my greedy father had absorbed all of its silver energy.

Jonathan's gaze roamed over my sagging, broken body, laid out on the altar like a piece of meat ready to be butchered, and he drew the most obvious conclusion. That all the power had returned to him.

That I was bereft.

But that wasn't true. Unlike my father, the silver life-force wasn't the only magic that I had to rely on. Lucas had given me something else when he's made me pack. He'd given me something to live for, to fight for, and as the seconds passed, I could feel the pack bond strengthen and ease some of the pain that held me prostrate on the altar.

I knew now that my Alpha still lived, and there was no way in hell that I was going to let Jonathan get his hands on him.

Whether it was my new pack magic giving my life-force a kick start, or just my sheer determination to protect Lucas and the others, the prickly static hum of silver energy over my skin told me that when Jonathan regenerated he'd left something behind for me.

Leisurely, Jonathan strolled around the altar, hands behind his back. I pushed myself up a fraction further so that I could keep him in my sights, the bloody dagger still clutched in my hand. My eyes widened as he got close enough for me to really see the intricate magic that made up his life-force.

Something else was different. And wrong, Very, very wrong.

Veins of crimson ran through the thick web of magic that clung to his form. For once the silver was unable to assimilate the foreign energy. I'd seen something like that before, in our ancestor, Jennet Device. Little bloody bolts of lightening infecting pure witch energy. But never in Jonathan. Never in the silver magic that we shared.

Oblivious, Jonathan continued his victory lap around the altar. "Well, well, well, here we are again. It was only a matter of time before I took the power back. I thought you might enjoy playing with it for a little while. You are my daughter after all. But a month should suffice for one such as you."

"Where have you been, old man?"

"I've used the month well, child. I found us a lovely home here in the city: the Old Town Hall. There's a perfect wing designed especially with errant daughters in mind. You'll be perfectly comfortable, don't worry."

He had to be kidding. The Old Town Hall in Sheffield City Centre was a decrepit run down old derelict courthouse. I knew just where he intended to keep me. The basement holding cells were like a nightmare lunatic asylum from a horror movie.

Not likely, father dear.

Jonathan grasped my wrist, the one still clutching the bloody silver knife. His intention was to make me drop it. Instead, the contact agitated the crimson veins in his life-force, making them pulse angrily. The blood staining the dagger gravitated towards him and merged with the veins already polluting his silver energy. The air got dense and heavy. It felt like power.

Vampire power.

Jonathan's eyes went wide as he finally understood that something was wrong. My silver life-force had been contaminated by Mary's dark magic and the Baroness's old vampire blood. He'd drawn all that tainted energy from the circle into himself.

The crimson veins in Jonathan's life-force grew fatter, engorged with vampire blood. They throbbed and pulsed until finally whatever hold his silver witch's magic had over the crimson failed. The veins exploded leaving the silver haze full of tiny droplets of blood levitating in the air around him.

The body of the Baroness was pale and waxy, exsanguinated by Jonathan's new vampiric life-force.

A fitting end to a true monster.

Jonathan was a different matter. His vampire life was only just beginning.

My father rocked backwards and forwards on the floor, his jaw slack and a vacant expression in silver eyes that were shot through with crimson. Drool ran down from the side of his mouth.

The heaviness in the air thickened.

Before, the Baroness had lacked the usual signs of vampire energy, but when her blood mixed with my father's witch magic, its potency flared to life. The dense waves of vampire power moved through the atmosphere, leaving behind an absence of natural energy.

The void became so overwhelming that I knew there were other players at large. There was only one vampire I'd met who's power made me want to sink to the floor to escape suffocating in its viscous depths.

I'd wondered when the London vamps were going to arrive. Emily had said they were on their way when she'd called in Lizzie to help find Stephen.

Shame they'd missed all the fun.

Well, well, well, Jonathan took on more than he bargained for...again! But what is he now? Vampire? Witch?
Read on to find out!